Office for Affirmative Action/ Equal Opprotunity helps achieve diversity
Diversity Week commences today. Issues of diversity will be recognized and addressed all week, but Utah State University also designates an office that serves this purpose all year long.
Sue Guenter-Schlesinger is the director of the Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Office located in Old Main, Room 161.
Since the university is an institution receiving federal funds, this office is necessary, in a role of compliance, to ensure affirmative action and equal opportunity needs and requirements are met, Schlesinger said.
“We are required to take steps to increase diversity in order to create a proportional representation of women and minority faculty and staff in jobs which they are underutilized,” Schlesinger said. “We are, for the most part, underutilized by minorities, and to some extent women, in a number of job groups.”
The Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Office briefs every faculty and professional staff search committee concerning open positions and advises them, according to federal guidance, to go beyond normal search processes and target under-represented groups, Schlesinger said.
She said the challenge is to get a diversity of qualified applicants for these positions.
“Being in a somewhat rural and isolated community, it becomes difficult to attract qualified ethnic minority applicants to apply,” Schlesinger said. “We do not have a critical mass of any ethnic group here, compared to other areas; therefore, some cultural amenities might not be available here in Cache Valley to the extent that they would be available elsewhere.”
Schlesinger said while it is helpful to advertise in targeted ethnic journals, such as Black Issues in Higher Education, perhaps the most effective means is to target women and minority applicants through networking and personal contacts.
“One way we recruit qualified, diverse applicants is by communicating our desire for an increasingly diverse work force,” Schlesinger said.
She said many professional academic associations have minority and women interest groups. Search Committee chairs can contact these groups and send their members position announcements.
Schlesinger said another way they can target a diverse applicant pool is to contact colleagues in appropriate fields and express their desire to assist in identifying qualified people for open positions.
“Our ultimate goal is to achieve compliance in providing a qualified and diverse applicant pool for available jobs,” Schlesinger said. “Beyond that, our interest is not only with recruiting but retaining diversity.”
The office wants to ensure applicants are aware of and understand the wide range of resources available to them. These include resources designed to meet individual needs pertaining to the backgrounds of applicants such as ethnicity, gender and marital status.
Schlesinger said, “We need to assertively work to dispel the stereotypes of Utah that exist and reach out in a welcoming way to all applicants, especially applicants with diverse backgrounds.”
For more information about Affirmative Action/ Equal Opprotunity at USU call the office at 797-1266. The organization can also be found online at www.usu.
edu/~aaeo/index.html.